It is the week of Valentines Day, and love is indeed in the air. There were a lot of couples out today home shopping, and one couple who mentioned that they saw me last weekend touring our great city. I gave them a card and introduced them to The Cribline, so hopefully they’ll read this week’s post and be hooked.

There are a lot of great listings this week and fresh homes on the market for the first time. It’s starting to feel healthier and healthier out there.

The Cribline House Pick of the Week is based on identifying 10-to-15 homes on the market each week and touring open houses on Sunday between Noon and 4 pm in person to get a real feel for a place. We focus only on homes in DC proper and this week our tour began on Capitol Hill, continuing up to Petworth near Grant Circle and Sherman Circle and ending up in Mt. Pleasant.

This week’s tour of Washington began in Brookland, near Catholic University. We covered some ground up through LeDroit Park and Bloomingdale on our way to Mt. Pleasant and Cleveland Park… finishing up on Capitol Hill.

The Pick of the Week is 712 Kenyon Street, NW in Columbia Heights. It’s a 3 bedroom, 3.5 bath town home for $598,500. It’s a complete renovation with all of the bells and whistles that include an open floor plan, gourmet kitchen with granite counters, stainless steel appliances, a breakfast bar, a double decker deck, 2 master suites, custom tile baths, 2 covered parking spaces, and 2 additional spaces.

The basement has an in-law suite with a separate entrance and modern kitchen.

Arlington remodeler Michael Sauri, founder and president of TriVistaUSA, won two "Grand" first place awards for remodeling projects at the Capital CotY (Contractor of the Year) Awards presented on January 23, 2012, by the Metro DC Chapter of the National Association of the Remodeling Industry. Sauri won the two Grand CotY awards in the categories of Commercial interior and Residential Basement Interior.

Sauri also won a Merit award in the category of Creative Solutions under $15,000 and a Finalist award in the category of Residential Addition $100 to $250,000.